Down 3! (And Delayed Pics!)

So after a long....weekend and a Monday holiday I happen to be 3 pounds down!  Not that I was shocked-I did a ton of hiking this weekend and tehre will be pictures posted soon!  I am just excited to have made the leap to loosing weight again! 

I finally got the cord to unload my pictures of Dad and Mom with their T-Shirt Blankets!  Roxie and Bessie sure were excited to try out Mom's.  And Dad and I curled up under his!



Dad and Me under his "Concert" Blanket



Roxie, Bessie and Mom curled up on the couch under Mom's "Elba" Blanket!



The Art of the Tart!

Due to my crazy life I have had a delay in getting this to you.  Below are a few pictures from the day I learned to make Mama Dot's Tarts!

Mama Dot and I!

I have always been told I have a lot of Mama Dot "in me" and years ago when I was probably 12 there was a picture taken of me standing exactly the way she always has....hands propped up on my rear-end keeping a watch over things.  A picture was made that day of us standing like that together.  It embarrassed me more than anything that day.  But now, I embrace that...I love the fact that people see my relatives in who I am....I just hope it's the good side!!!

What out!  The two "Dots" are on the prowl!!

So below is the link showing where the Tarts were coming up!  I have lost my cord to upload my pictures from my camera to show you Mom and Dad with their blankets but I promise to get all of them uploaded along with the pictures from this upcoming weekend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf1DJu1ZdW8

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Easter Weekend!!

Reese

I really wasn't going to...

I wasn't going to weigh-in this morning.  I was going to give my body a few weeks to catch up with my working out.  I had gotten to the point that weigh-ins were no fun!  But I stepped on the scale with my right eye cracked just enough to see the numbers...

I was DOWN!! Whew....big sigh of relief!  I am back down to a total of 12 pounds!  YEAH!!! 

It has been hard to get my work-outs in.  But I know that they have to become a habit.  I am trying to keep my workout clothes in my car so when I can get by there I don't have an excuse.  In this day and age it is hard.  I also have had anxiety over going into the gym and not knowing what I should be doing, or how to work the machines.  I must say that is probably one of the best things I have gotten out of my trainer. I have no fear over the machines and how to work everything.  My own little personal high at the gym this morning was I helped a woman who was trying to lift the workout bench to a different setting.  She walked around it and then tried one or two things. When I realized she didn't know I showed her.  That is something I NEVER would have done nor would have known how to do a few years ago!  I sure have come a long way there! 

We Have Rotation...



Tagged on Internet as the Tornado just south of Tuscaloosa on 69 (Where I am located)


Now....I have experienced many things in my life.  And unfortunately more than one has been weather related.  However Friday's weather in Tuscaloosa was some of the scariest I have experienced in a long time.  Yes the twister came right through my subdivision! 

I knew it was getting rough and Roxie and I were in the bathroom with the door cracked watching the TV.  When the power went out I knew it couldn't be too far away so we jumped into my little closet in the bathroom and about 5 minutes later my ears started popping, and the air lifted.  That is the only way I know to describe it.  I heard what sounded like a helicopter outside that wasn't moving.  It was a sustained roar and I knew it was very very close by.  I hear a loud noise that I knew had something to do with the house but had no clue where it came from. 

After about 10 minutes I got the nerve to go outside the closet and  the first thing I see out my back window is a fence that strangely didn't belong to me.  That got my heart rate up and I went to the front door.  There I saw a garbage can that also didn't belong to me and my lamp pole that my mailbox is attached to sitting sideways.  When the rain subsided I was able to see lots of shingles strewn every where in the yards and then I found the source of the noise I heard during the tornado.  The left side of my garage door was blown in about six inches.  It was a strange thing to see when I looked into the garage and saw light from outside.  The 2x4 that the track for the garage door attaches to that actually attaches the garage door to the house blew in 4-6 inches top to bottom.  Well I knew I was in a pickle then.  My car was in the garage and I was afraid to open the garage door manually because of the damage.  Finally my hero came along...Holly (man) and Phyllis came over and helped me get the side pushed in and my car out! 

The rest of the weekend revolved around clean up and the A-Day game!  I didn't get to see the Bama Softball girls play but I hear they swept the Bulldogs this past weekend and up in Cleavland where the weather was a bit better the Alabama Gymnastics team claimed another NCAA Championship!!  Congrats to the girls!

Thursday night I leave to go hiking and camping with 2 of my favorite people in the world!  I have a lot of house work to get done before then, but I will plow through this week to be ready to load up Thursday afternoon and head for the mountains.  Aunt Debbie and I are hiking and Mom will get some sight-seeing time in and then camp with us at night!  It is shaping up to be some great Girl Time!!!





Bottom of Garage Door

 

Where the Garbage Can Hit the House



                                                                                                                                               



A quarter of a mile from my house



Across the street from the left picture

Mastering the Weekend

This past weekend was more eventful than I thought it would be.  I did get a chance to see and visit with everyone I planned on seeing, I just didn't get to stay as long as I wanted to with everyone! 

Before the weekend even got started I caught the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" on TV.  A classic southern movie, it in many ways reminds me of the small sleepy town I grew up in.  Now don't get me wrong, I would NEVER want to go back to high school and I will NEVER call high school the "Best Time of My Life".  However, having left Elba (Small Town with a Big Heart) I realize how wonderful it is to walk into Church and everyone not only know me and my family, but have known me since I was a very small child.  They are happy to see me and genuinely want to know how I am and what is going on in my life. I think I had to leave Elba to realize how much I truly love the small town life.  And just like the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" I have my own cast of eccentric, funny, and lovable characters.  In fact until a few years ago I didn't know my mother knew how to skin a snake!  Now THERE is a skill that I want to learn and should probably be on my list!  I mean who knew?! My sweet, demure mother skinning a snake! HA!

The weekend started out with me making it to Elba in time to go to Mama Dot's and learn to make her tarts!  They were peach and we had a very memorable time working with each other learning, teaching and just being in each others company.  The tarts were as sweet as the company! I was able to take some to Dad and a lucky few at the Elba Country Club (ECC) to be sure I had it down right.  Lucky for me that Mom was able to borrow Aunt Debbie's camera so we could film part of this.  As soon as I get some of it uploaded I will post it.  Mama Dot also had some concerns about some things at the cemetery.  After Aunt B had come across the street to visit and taste test my tarts, we all went up to the cemetery.  Again, I was having a Fried Green Tomatoes flashback! 

I remember being a younger girl and my great grandmother would take me down to the cemetery in New Brockton.  She tended the grass and kept everything looking nice and neat.  Although I thought it was a little creepy then, as I have grown up I realize that cemeteries are really a calming place.  Now don't get me wrong, when I was walking with a friend of mine recently one night we steered clear of the local cemetery. But I have come to realize that the same way we pray to God that talking with a friend or loved one who has passed on is just a therapeutic.  And I hope that when I am gone the things I do, my mother and great aunts do will be done for me. 

Saturday I had the chance to scoot over to Wicksburg, AL for a much too short visit with my sweet friend and Phi Mu sister, Amanda.  It was the day of her son's birthday and since I wouldn't be able to make it to the party I helped to get things ready while she and I chatted.  I could have stayed all day and night with her and we would have never run out of things to talk about.  Even though we are in such different places in our lives-she is married with one of the most adorable children I know and one on the way!  Where as I am single, Mardi Gras loving, 30 year old and the most responsibility I have is a dog!  After I loved on her belly and her sweet boy for a little while I flew back to Elba for an afternoon of  golf. 

The golfing was not just the Masters from the beautiful city of Augusta, but Elba was also having their 3 person scramble.  Dad always plays in this tournament and they played a great round Saturday morning!  We all piled up at his house and watched the Masters and were pulling for the 21 year old Rory McIlroy from Northern Ireland!  He was showing amazing nerves and pulling through a great round.  Unfortunately for me watching golf on TV is similar to watching NASCAR on TV....it stimulates a part of my brain that controls sleep!  I took a short nap and got ready for the Calcutta at the Country Club. 

Sunday morning started with Dad playing golf and Neil and I heading to Ham Church.  We then watched Dad and them do a little of what Rory did on Sunday...not play up to their previous days score.  Dad and them let it go and so did Rory.  Charl Schwartzel birdied the last 4 holes to win the Green Jacket. Although I was driving and not able to finish watching it with Dad and Neil it was a crazy finish for this magnificent course.  Dad and Neil have always shared a love of golf together.  I have been fortunate enough to be invited into their world a few times, once attending the Masters and the other being the TPC.  Dad and I also play in a golf tournament together every year.  It is something we able to do as a family.  One neat side note, Boo Weekly, and good friend of my Dad and Brother's and great golfer has written a book and a friend of ours who lives down that way brought Dad and Neil autographed copies, too cool!

It was a great weekend and when I get everything unpacked this afternoon I will post pictures of Dad's blanket, Mom's blanket and Mama Dot!  I know why I go home as much as I like to...it's just a wonderful place made up of amazing people who love me! 

VRG

Plans, plans, plans!

I just realized that I have been SO busy planning things that I haven't updated you guys! So here we go-2 posts in one day!

SO I will start with the ones that are going to be happening first! 

**I am going home this weekend...and as my Dad sweetly reminds me-it has been a long time. I am going to be able to present Dad and Mom with their blankets!  Pictures of this will follow! 

**While I am home this weekend I have high hopes to cram more than a few things in. But one of the biggest is that I have talked with Mama Dot and I am going to learn how to make the "Almost World Famous, Definitely ELBA Famous" Apple Tarts!  We have carved some time out of our weekends so I can learn.  I am charging the video camera because I think this is something that will need to be preserved for posterity! 

**Mom and I have talked about going to the Drive-In movies either on Friday or Saturday night.  This may not happen on this particular trip home but it has not been forgotten!  With the weather getting so good I am excited about that one! 

**The end of April brings around a State  Holiday. I am going to spend that weekend hiking with (Aunt) Debbie Jared!  Mom, although not volunteering to go on the actual hike, has volunteered to make the drive up with us and drop us off at the start of our trip and pick us up at the end!  This adventure could possibly knock out two off my list!  Hicking and camping! YEAH!  There is no one I look forward to doing this with more than Aunt Debbie.  When I was in Junior High she took a van full of kids to Albuquerque, New Mexico to hike a mountain!  It was a grand adventure but I can't believe that she drove us out there and BACK! I can imagine she cherished silence for a week or so after that trip!

**Saturday October 15, 2011 is the Girls Inc 1/2 Marathon. I have been looking for a 1/2 Marathon that will benefit a group that I would be proud to support.  I think this race is a great time of year for me...giving me plenty of time to prepare, it's in a place that I hopefully (come on Mom...let me have the condo!) have a place to stay so really I can pay the entry fee and be set to go!  The website for Girls Inc of Bay County is http://girlsincofbaycounty.com/ This seems to be a wonderful program! 

**I have my eye on the hot air balloon ride!  I have been scoping out some options so more information is to come about it!! 

**I am waiting to hear back from the "Insiders" on meeting Mr. C.  That is something that I literally dreamed about doing. I have never been to Charleston in my life.  However I dreamed the other night that I was sitting, prim and proper in a Charleston bar sipping on a cocktail and Mr. C walked in.  He asked if anyone was sitting at my table and I told him that I had been waiting on him!  He sat down and started to tell me about his life.  When he asked me about my family I laughed and asked if he had a few days for me to tell him about my "functionally dysfunctional family" and then, unfortunately, I woke up.  Now meeting Mr. C probably will not happen this way...thus it is the things dreams are literally made of...but hopefully at least at a book signing!

I am sure there are some other things I should update you on...they just aren't coming to me right off the bat!  Hope you all have a wonderfully crazy week. 
~Reese

Well...it's Tuesday

Just another day in the confusing land of weight loss.  I don't workout and I loose weight. I start hard core working out and I GAIN A POUND!  As if weight hasn't (obviously) always been a mystery to me...this just proves the point that it really doesn't make much sense.  Now, yes I know, working out helps you to gain muscle.  Muscle weighs more than fat blah Blah BLAH!  Sometimes that is REALLY hard to believe.  Today being an example for me.  So it's back to 39 pounds to go.  Next week I think I should be down 4 at least since I am up one and working my booty off (hopefully literally) at the gym.

I began to realize this week that a 1/2 Marathon is no short distance!  I also began to realize that no matter how much I have jogged in the past that I need to work on my stamina.  Therefore the treadmills at my gym here in T-Town have been getting a goooooood workout themselves.  Thankfully my cousin, Amy Ruddock, is also a member of the gym and we are attempting to working out every Monday (hasn't happened yet), Wednesday, and Friday with me!  One thing I have had a problem with in the past were hills.  They just kicked the breath right out of me.  SO I have been steadily moving the incline up to help with this little problem.  Also, lucky me I guess, there are a few hills in my subdivision and now that the nasty weather from last night has blown through I may take them for a test.

I didn't do a weight post last week but I haven't forgotten the funny for this week! I got these cartoons together a few years ago when I was working in the Mobile office.  We had a Weight Watcher group and I produced a weekly newsletter.  I think everything is more fun if you have something to laugh at!

Wish I owned a pair of these!!

Reese